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The rapid rise of alternative organisations such as social enterprises is largely due to the promotional activities of intermediary organisations. So far, little is known about the affective nature of such activities. The present article thus investigates how intermediary organisations make social entrepreneurship palatable for a broader audience by establishing it as an object of desire. Drawing on affect-oriented extensions of Laclau and Mouffe's poststructuralist theory, hegemonisation is suggested as a way of understanding how social entrepreneurship is articulated through a complementary process of signification and affective investment. Specifically, by examining Austrian intermediaries, we show how social entrepreneurship is endowed with a sense of affective thrust that is based on three interlocking dynamics: the articulation of fantasies such as 'inclusive exclusiveness', 'large-scale social change' and 'pragmatic solutions'; the repression of anxiety-provoking and contentious issues (constitutive quiescences); as well as the use of conceptually vague, floating signifiers (moments of indeterminacy). Demonstrating that the hegemonisation of social entrepreneurship involves articulating certain issues whilst, at the same time, omitting others, or rendering them elusive, the article invites a counter-hegemonic critique of social entrepreneurship, and, on a more general level, of alternative forms of organising, that embraces affect as a driving force of change, while simultaneously affirming the impossibility of harmony and wholeness.
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BackgroundSelf-management technologies, such as patient-controlled electronic health records (PCEHRs), have the potential to help people manage and cope with disease.ObjectiveThis study set out to investigate patient families’ lived experiences of working with a PCEHR.MethodsWe conducted a semistructured qualitative field study with patient families and clinicians at a children’s hospital in the UK that uses a PCEHR (Patients Know Best). All families were managing the health of a child with a serious chronic condition, who was typically under the care of multiple clinicians. As data gathering and analysis progressed, it became clear that while much of the literature assumes that patients are willing and waiting to take more responsibility for and control over their health management (eg, with PCEHRs), only a minority of participants in our study responded in this way. Their experiences with the PCEHR were diverse and strongly shaped by their coping styles. Theory on coping identifies a continuum of coping styles, from approach to avoidance oriented, and proposes that patients’ information needs depend on their style.ResultsWe identified 3 groups of patient families and an outlier, distinguished by their coping style and their PCEHR use. We refer to the outlier as controlling (approach oriented, highly motivated to use PCEHR), and the 3 groups as collaborating (approach oriented, motivated to use PCEHR), cooperating (avoidance oriented, less motivated to use PCEHR), and avoiding (very avoidance oriented, not motivated to use PCEHR).ConclusionsThe PCEHR met the needs of controller and collaborators better than the needs of cooperators and avoiders. We draw on the Self-Determination Theory to propose ways in which a PCEHR design might better meet the needs of avoidance-oriented users. Further, we highlight the need for families to also relinquish control at times, and propose ways in which PCEHR design might support a better distribution of control, based on effective training, ease of use, comprehensibility of data security mechanisms, timely information provision (recognizing people’s different needs), personalization of use, and easy engagement with clinicians through the PCEHR.
Personal Visualizations (PV) provide visual feedback on personal data, e. g., regarding physical activity or energy consumption. They are a vital part of many behavior change technologies (BCT) and Personal Informatics tools. Feedback can be presented in various ways, for example using counts and graphs, stylized displays, metaphoric displays, narrative information, data physicalisations, or even living plants. The properties of a PV are likely to influence its e ectiveness towards reaching a goal. However, users' perceptions and preferences regarding di erent PVs seem to vary strongly, rendering a one-size-fits-all approach unsuitable. To investigate whether preferences for certain PVs coincide with personality or gender, we conducted a lab study with three example PVs: Donut, Glass, and Creature. Indeed, the results of our lab study are a first indicator that there is a relationship between personality traits and preferences for di erent PVs. High scores on extraversion and openness, for example, positively correlated with a preference for Creature. In contrast, high scores in conscientiousness negatively correlated with a preference for Creature. Further research is necessary to better understand how truly personalized PVs can be realized, which, in turn, might fit better into people's lives and thereby be more e ective.
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